Zude

Zude is a social networking website that offers free and unlimited web pages to all subscribers. Among Zude's unique features is an innovative use of drag-and-drop technology which allows users to drag text, images, URLs, RSS, widgets and other content from another browser onto their Zude pages. All content dropped in the Zude environment is rendered as a "Zude object" with a set of editable properties that allows control over the object's size, display properties and more. Zude provides several dozen default objects so users can create their own content and display their profile and contact information on the page. Built in tools allow users to upload images and PDF documents from a local computer for display on their Zude page.

In April 2008 the SocialMix™ utility was added to Zude, allowing users to integrate content from their other social networking accounts, including Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, HI-5, Orkut, and more. Zude's widespread support of mainstream web technologies facilitates its use as both a portal to existing web content and a container for personal content.

=History=not only that but the website is weak as hellIn 2006 Jim McNiel and Steve Repetti founded Fifth Generation Systems, Inc. with the idea of using Repetti’s Open5G technology platform, which he had developed over the past decade, as the technological foundation for a Web-based platform for personal expression.

The platform they envisioned would enable anyone to quickly and easily:
* Build and manage a dynamic website
* Personalize their website without restrictions
* Use their website to connect with friends, family and the world

They wanted their platform to support:
* An intuitive What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) interface that ensures that the website a user creates is the website the world will see.
* Cross-domain drag-and-drop of text, photos, video, widgets – practically any type of Web object – onto your Zude page.
* Complete user customization of their website’s design, layout and navigation.
* Photo, music, video and other types of file sharing
* Consolidation of websites, startpages, communities, blogs and other Web destinations in one place
* Tagging, grouping, rating and other social computing capabilities
* Blogging and other Web publishing features
* The development of customized Web applications and widgets

Independent research confirmed that there existed an untapped market for their platform for personal expression. The research showed that most Web users who have established an online profile or presence for themselves feel that current Web publishing and social network applications limit their creativity, and prevent them from being able to fully express themselves. In addition, the research showed that people who currently do not have a website or online profile would be interested in a fast, intuitive application that would enable them to establish a presence for themselves on the Web. Having secured evidence that Web users wanted a platform for personal expression, McNiel and Repetti began working to develop technology that would be powerful, scalable and flexible enough to support their vision. The result was Zude, which launched in beta in Spring 2007. A version 2.0 release of Zude is slated for Summer 2008.

Composition of a Zude Page

Zude pages are typically built using content that can come from three sources: web pages, local hard drive, or Zude itself (native objects).

Web Content

Web Content consists of anything that originated from another web site. Zude allows the user to drag content from an adjacent browser window and drop it onto his Zude page, including text, images, widgets and URLs. Zude pages also support mainstream widgets and gadgets.

Local Content

Local content, including photos, media files, and PDF documents can be uploaded to Zude's own File Manager utility where they can be dragged and dropped onto a Zude page. Zude creates appropriate objects from this content, for example, dropping an mp3 file onto a Zude page creates a media player object with that file preloaded.

Native Zude Objects

Zude includes over forty native objects for adding functionality, interactivity, decoration, and navigation features to Zude pages. For example, there are a number of text objects pre-customized for adding headlines, captions, notes, and HTML content to pages. All text objects fully are customizable in terms of content, color, size, and text position.

External links

* [http://www.zude.com Main Zude Website]
* [http://www.briansolis.com/2008/04/zude-wheres-my-digital-identity-hub.html Zude Review from Web 2.0 Expo, 4/25/08]